It is earning a place in the small set of memberships they can actually remember, use and trust. For brands exploring NFT-based access or tokenized rewards, that is the real design brief: make the experience feel frictionless before asking members to care about the technology behind it.
Attention is the scarce reward currency
The Australian loyalty market offers a useful warning. A 2026 study cited by B&T says 93% of consumers belong to at least one program, yet members can name an average of only 3.8 memberships without prompting. Their wallets may be full; their attention is not.
That should change how we define a successful enrollment. A wallet pass, a digital collectible or a member token is not proof of affinity simply because it has been claimed. The meaningful moment is when a member understands, almost instantly, what it unlocks in their next interaction with the brand: earlier access, a better seat, a more personal invitation, a smoother checkout, or recognition at an event.
In other words, utility needs to arrive before explanation. If a customer has to decode crypto language, connect multiple accounts or hunt for the benefit, we have already added friction to a relationship intended to remove it.
Personalisation must feel earned, not merely automated
The same report points to an uncomfortable value exchange: 63% of members believe brands have enough data to know them, while only 40% feel the offers they receive are personalised. The gap is not a shortage of customer information; it is a shortage of relevance in the moment.
For membership teams, this is where access can outperform another generic points multiplier. A fan who attends a live event, a customer who repeatedly chooses a product category, or a community member who contributes feedback should encounter benefits that acknowledge that behaviour. A digital membership layer can make entitlement visible and portable, but it cannot rescue a poorly considered offer.
There is also a trust boundary. B&T reports the warning from industry voices that incorrect personalisation can do more damage than no personalisation at all. Start with signals you can confidently act on, and make the resulting benefit easy for the member to recognise. We should not confuse “we have the data” with “we have permission to make this feel intimate.”
Design the journey across every touchpoint
Recent coverage also points in the same direction: Loyalty360 highlights rising grocery-program enrollment alongside weakening engagement, while Digital Commerce 360 reports on Bero growing direct-to-consumer ecommerce through an omnichannel loyalty program. The common lesson is practical: membership cannot live in a separate tab of the brand experience.
Map the journey from discovery to redemption. Can a member join without a detour? Can they see their status where they shop, browse or book? Does an online benefit translate into something meaningful in store, at a venue or in the community? If the answer is no, the program may be accumulating accounts rather than building belonging.
This is especially relevant as digital-asset businesses gain more mainstream market visibility, including Galaxy Digital’s addition to the Russell 1000 Index. The opportunity is not to make every loyalty scheme feel like a financial product. It is to use the underlying rails quietly, where they improve verification, access and continuity for the customer.
For marketing teams, the next move is simple: audit the last three member interactions and ask what tangible value each one delivered. Keep the benefit immediate, the recognition accurate and the path to redemption short. Enduring loyalty is built when members do not have to remember why they joined—we make the value impossible to miss.